GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Scholar grant recipient creates online CME tool
Sandra Adams, MD, MS, FCCP, believes in making education accessible, affordable, practical, and engaging. With a grant from The CHEST Foundation, she is creating an interactive, online continuing medical educational tool to teach health-care professionals evidence-based best practices for identifying and treating COPD.
Dr. Adams is the 2010 recipient of the GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health grant. This $150,000 grant is awarded every 3 years by The CHEST Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 grant.
Her online curriculum fills a critical knowledge gap, notes Dr. Adams, Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and staff physician at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio.
"Too often, COPD is not diagnosed or managed until it is very advanced," she says.
It also is designed to fit into a health-care professional’s busy schedule, available in short, convenient modules that can easily fit into a short lunch break. "One of the biggest challenges in medicine is managing the explosion of new information and data occurring on a daily basis," she says.
Called WipeCOPD (for Web-Based Interactive Professional Education in COPD), the program is chiefly intended for primary care clinicians (physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners) but is also appropriate for respiratory therapists, nurses, and pharmacists. Topics include the diagnosis, assessment, management, and differential diagnosis of COPD and acute exacerbations.
Dr. Adams and a multidisciplinary team of colleagues developed the content under the guidance of ACCP educational specialists; the ACCP is also providing the CME credit.
The program is divided into six parts. CME credit will be available for all modules within the next few months, and will be claimable online.
"A to Z of COPD" presents COPD basics in 15-min segments, including interactive questions and immediate feedback. The Facilitated Clinical Learning section includes several patient-clinician scenarios (starring fellow ACCP members), with commentary by Dr. Adams. Two modules on inhalers include demonstrations on a variety of devices and guidance to help teach patients the proper use of their inhalers. The Virtual Clinic Patients section, which was previewed at CHEST 2012 in Atlanta, gives students an opportunity to practice differential diagnosis skills.
There are also eight modules of self-directed learning covering 15 themes.
Dr. Adams has set up a nonprofit organization called the WipeDiseases Foundation to provide support for future Web-based educational offerings. In addition to the grant from The CHEST Foundation, she recently received a grant from the University of Texas System to develop a WipeAsthma curriculum. Her plans include developing similar programs on DVT and pulmonary hypertension, offering the programs free to medical schools, and marketing them to clinicians around the world.
For more information, visit WipeCOPD.com.
About the GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health Grantgrant
The 2013 Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health grant will be presented to a Fellow of the ACCP to support a clinical educational project that is designed to improve patient care. The grant is intended for the investigation of an issue that is not easily supported through traditional funding and that does one or more of the following:
• Promotes alternatives for the treatment of respiratory disease
• Educates patients about options for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory disease
• Educates and disseminates new knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory disease
• Addresses family, legislative, and regulatory issues
• Defines new mechanisms leading to innovations and improvements in the treatment of respiratory disease
The grant is for $150,000 over 3 years. Applications are due May 1, 2013. Find more information and apply online at onebreath.org, or call Lee Ann Fulton, Program Manager, at (847) 498-8332.